Connie Collins, Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator

April 2012

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Friends of the late Donna Finney are having a rubber stamping/paper crafting estate sale on Friday, April 27, 2012. The sale will be held at 5145 Millbrook Drive, in Nashville (Bellevue area of town), in the Stonemeade subdivision next to Chaffin's Barn on Hwy 100, beginning at noon. The sale will also open to the general public all day on Saturday, during the annual neighborhood garage sale.

Many in the Nashville stamping community are aware that Donna Finney recently passed away and that she requested that some of her friends hold an estate sale for all her crafting supplies. Donna and her sister were enthuastic stampers for several years, so there is a huge selection of storage, papers, stamps (several brands), markers, pads, tools, embellishments of all kinds, and lots more. Donna hoped to raise enough money to pay for one month of Pat's care (her sister) at the Alzheimer's facility, so this all goes for a very worthy cause.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Today the Artisan's are being featured again over in the Stampin' Up! Facebook Artisan Gallery. We were asked to choose between making a Mother's Day project or something for spring. I decided to go with the Mother's Day theme...afterall, I needed to make a card for my wonderful mother, so why not now?

Can you believe that this card is made entirely from Whisper White card stock. I started with a basic 5.5" x 4.25" card base. Then I punched three strips of white card stock with the Lace Border Punch and carefully glued them to the base. I love how it gives the illusion of dry embossing. Then I stamped the greeting in Basic Black Classic Ink. Once the base of the card was finished, I stamped several sets of flowers on Whisper White CS with Basic Black Ink and colored them using a blender pen and reinkers. After everything was dry, I fussy cut three bunches of flowers and arranged them like a bouquet using Dimensionals to adhere them to the card base. For the final touches I added a double bow and various sized pearls to the flower centers. You can find a list of the ingredients over in the gallery. Be sure to head over and see what some of the other talented Artisan's have to share with you today.

Sometimes I get asked how to mail a card like this. Most of the time I hand deliver a card with lots of layers, but if it absolutely needs to be mailed, I use a padded envelope. Yes it does increase the mailing cost, but it is worth every penny.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

This morning I was feeling a little bit guilty for not posting on my blog over the past two weeks. I have really enjoyed spending a little time with my family over spring break, but it's time to get back to stamping. I typically avoid making masculine cards because they aren't exactly my strongest style, but with my dad's birthday next week, I thought I had better get busy and get him something in the mail right away.

This probably won't make it into my favorite cards folder, but it will do in a pinch. It was supposed to be a one-layer card, but after two attempts, smearing the ink both times, and running out of time, I changed directions. I stamped a white strip of card stock with the flower(?) image from the Simply Soft hostess set in Versamark ink and embossed it with white embossing powder. I stamped the image again with Early Espresso ink to fill in some areas. Then I sponged on various colors of ink (Soft Suede, Chocolate Chip, & Early Espresso) until I got a look that I liked. I mounted the strip with dimensionals onto the white layer. To give the card more interest I added some linen thread and a button. Everything got mounted onto a Early Espresso card base, and I added a personal note to the inside. Now it just needs to get into the mail so that it will be there in time. I forgot to send a card for my Dad's birthday once and I kicked myself for weeks. I managed to somewhat redeem myself at Father's Day, but still, I won't make that mistake again...even it means buying a card (ouch).

Monday, April 02, 2012

This weekend was crazy. It started with a dress rehearsal on Saturday morning for our Easter program a church. For those of you who don't know me, I play clarinet in the church orchestra (or I should say I attempt to play). I also sing in the church choir sometimes too, if I am not playing that particular Sunday. Then I attended a ladies luncheon, also at my church, on Saturday afternoon. It was absolutely wonderful. Everything was so pretty. Our guest speaker was a friend from my old church, Jennifer Walker. I didn't know that Jennifer had moved, so it was really good to see her. If you are looking for an uplifting blog to refresh you soul, you might want to check out Jennifer's blog called "Smelling Coffee". Jennifer is one of the most inspiring people you will ever meet and she is a fabulous speaker and conference leader. Then after all of that, I came home and mowed our 1+ acre yard and did some other yard work. I was exhausted. On Sunday the orchestra played as part of our Sunday morning worship and then I was home for what seemed like a few minutes before I had to be back at church for our Easter music progam. The program was very nice and the choir sang beautifully.

I haven't stamped a thing this weekend, but I have one final project from leadership conference to show you. I have been saving my favorite for last. I am sorry, but I don't really have the instructions for this project. It just came together and before I knew it, I had to mail if off. What I do remember is that I let the Big Top Birthday DSP take center stage. I based all of my measurements on the scallop strip from the Tasteful Trims die. I wanted to make sure that each section of the lid had exactly three scallops, so I scored the paper accordingly and worked backward. All of the little embellishments were cut from paper in the collection. The banner is stamped with the Sale-a-bration set "Outlined Occassions". I think this box would be really cute on top of a round birthday cake.

Just a little note: I am going to take a couple of weeks off from my blog to spend time with my family over spring break. Don't worry, I'll be back soon.